fixing undercarbonated lager

gjd · 03-12-2010, 02:33 PM

Hello,
It being winter, I've been taking advantage of my cold basement to brew my usual ale recipes without a carboy warmer, just using lager yeast (usually Saflager S-23). It's working great, except the last 2 batches were undercarbonated. After bottling I've been nervously leaving them warm for 6-8 hrs (warm in my house is low 60s!), then back to the basement at 52-54F. I finally registered here to search for lagering threads, and found many explaining that even with lagers, corn sugar priming can/should carbonate at room temps. That explains that.

So I admit I didn't inspect every post in the 10 pages (!) of search results, but... the question is now that it's been sitting bottled and cool for weeks. Can I take my undercarbonated batch and warm it up for a week or two to pump it up a bit? Will the yeasties wake up and finish up? Should I gently agitate the bottles? It's quite drinkable, and I'm not going to open and recap or anything.

thanks for any advice/opinions.

**Yooper** · 03-12-2010, 02:53 PM

Sure! Take the bottles out of the cool place, and gently turn them end over end to resuspend any flocculated yeast. Store at 70 degrees for 3 weeks, then chill one overnight and try it. If it's not quite there yet, store at 70 for another week. My house isn't near 70 either, but the spot above the fridge gets pretty warm.